Going to Yellowstone

I really love National Parks. I think preserving land is important.

In fact, I think we should save a helluva lot more of it.

Or, I'm road tripping to Yellowstone in a few days and want to ponder the parks.

Way back sometime ago Roosevelt created Yellowstone national Park, and the other National Parks sprung up not long after.

This was a great idea for many reasons, but it's also become one of those things that's...less than cool, to me.

It's one of those things people view as a right. There are national parks, so any citizen should have the right to go to them. And they do, sure, but that's a big privilege people don't notice--a great number of people can't visit the parks because they're remote, cost money to get to, cost money to get into, and a lot of people wouldn't be able to afford taking off work.

Going to the parks is a privilege and to not acknowledge that is ignorant.

Which brings me to my next preponderance. I kind of think they should be more of a privilege. I don't think there should be roads or hotels or restaurants inside national parks. I think the only way to see them should be to hike in and camp with permits and whatnot.

This would, of course, make things very difficult. I understand that it doesn't seem feasible in a park like Yellowstone, with its abundance of potentially dangerous wildlife, unstable ground, and the US need to babysit everyone.

I will take advantage of easy access, but I do think that it is more important to preserve land than it is to have people see it. This may stem from my views that humankind is about as important as, well, a salamander (or less, because I think salamanders are cute). I consider the wolves and bears and bison and elk living in the park are more important than the people who go to see them. (That includes myself.) The Americas were so much better off before colonists decided to take over.

It's weird to me to have National parks as well. It puts so much emphasis on THAT part of the world being so important, but is it really more important than everywhere else people vomit progress all over the place? National parks tell us some land is more important than others. Unless you're looking at the world through the lens of human progress, that's just not true. The entire world is equally important. That's what we should be telling people.

Anyway, I'm going to Yellowstone with my mom. She's never been, and she's really excited. And I am too. It's truly amazing country, with truly amazing geological and human history (that most people will never learn about because American Indians get the shaft on a regular basis). Which is another thing--native people being removed to make way for the NPS. Spoiler--no National Park was discovered by anyone claiming to have discovered them in the last five hundred years--and the words "explored" also make me wary of authenticity. Maybe if they specified "First colonist to..." or "first white person to..." but they don't, so people are still being taught Columbus discovered anything but jack shit in 1492.

But I digress. National Parks. Great idea. Have their problems. I love them.